The Development of Prose Style

1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROSE STYLE face writers of the sixteenth speed of light were self-consciously dumbfound about the state of their language. They knew that it had changed markedly in the past both centuries, unless they were not sure whether too rapid a change was good. They were aware also that its vocabulary was being in?uenced by other modern languages, especially French and Italian. They wondered whether it should be more like Latin, the international language of learning, or whether it should be true to its own native genius. The spread of printing meant that commonwealth who were not learned (who did not know Latin) could afford English books and would therefore read, as they had not done before. Notable defenses of the bevel tongues of Italian and French had been published; some Englishmen felt that an equally valid defense of English could be made. As previous(predicate) as 1543 a translator, Peter Betham, proclaimed that he opinion translators ought to use the usual terms of our English tongue, not acceptation terms from other languages, because, as he said, continual borrow without repayment would make the language, as it would make a man, bankrupt.

Furthermore, he deplored what he called inkhorn terms, learned words derived from Latin or invented by authorsâ€" words so obscure that he thought the run-of-the-mine Englishman would not be able to understand them. To be sure, he admitted, a few words of foreign origin m octogenarianiness be allowed, since languages are clearly interlaced with each other, but the good writer of English is the one who follows Chaucer and other old writers, keeping English in its native tradition. The most far-famed theorist of language reform in the middle of the century was the famous classical scholar, Sir John Cheke, Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge. His theory of phonetic spelling is demonstrated in his letter to the translator Sir Thomas Hoby. The most important translations of the sixteenth century were the renderings of the Bible into the vernaculars.... If you want to get a full essay, coordinate it on our website: Orderessay

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